With a couple of upcoming Friendlies (Macedonia on Nov 14 & Poland on Nov 18), and with a break in my Masters happening right now (oh, how convenient), I finally have chance to to write a proper blog post that isn't a summary of my Twitter stories.

Yeah a lot has happened lately. First Begovic, then Jacob Lensky (and thank you, Stephen Hart, for publicly expressing your disappointment).

Click to continue reading...

Apparently Del Amitri did the theme song for Scotland's 1998 World Cup team. YouTube embedding has been disabled by their label (yeah, because you wouldn't want to let their millions of fans talk about it, right?), but you can watch it here (with a special guest appearance by Colin Hendry's mullet!

Click to continue reading...

I think headaches should be outlawed on Wednesdays. I mean, you are as far removed from the most recent weekend as you are from getting to the next one. That's enough misery. A headache on Wednesday is overkill. I vote "no" on Wednesday headaches. What say you?#1 - Chivas USA netminding monster Zach Thornton was tabbed as the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year for a second time today. Click to continue reading...

Hearts winger Andrew Driver has played for England under-21's but is also eligible to play for Scotland as he was schooled in Scotland, however the player� says he would prefer to focus on improving his club form at the moment than make his decision over his international future. "I'm not delaying . Click to continue reading...

Another headline that's surely never been written in the history of the English language.
This story takes us to Scotland, where it turns out a bunch of Aberdeen fans were dressed as sheep as they rode the train to an upcoming soccer match against Hibs in Edinburgh.
One unfortunate 24-year-old dude was apparently set alight and ran through the cars with his sheep-suit engulfed in flames. Click to continue reading...

Fancy dress supporter train blaze An Aberdeen supporter dressed as a sheep was set alight on a train on his way home from their match against Hibs on Saturday. The 24-year-old suffered serious burns to his arms and legs when his suit caught fire on a train in Fife. The victim reportedly ran through the carriage ablaze [. Click to continue reading...

Some news to read as you reflect on how little sun they must get in Scotland. (Probably safe for work. If your boss isn't offended by a few short seconds of naked buttocks.) (Spotted on 101 Great Goals) Sweden goes down to the wire: A preview of the final round for the [...] Click to continue reading...

Scotland will be tenuously linked to football at the 2012 Olympic Games after artist Craig Coulthard won a commission as part of the Cultural Olympiad.Coulthard's work is called Forest Pitch and according to the Highlands and Islands Arts website:Craig Coulthard's Forest Pitch involves a football pitch hidden within a forest. Click to continue reading...

With Rangers getting closer and closer to almost becoming Leeds United, maybe its time for both Celtic and Rangers to run away from the Scottish Premier League and head for greener pastures. Rangers 's club's bankers Lloyds are owed £30million by the end of the campaign. With a TV contract that is nothing to celebrate the only way that they maybe be able to meet the payment is to sell half of the first team. Click to continue reading...

Continuing our series of great Scottish players from days gone by through the medium of cigarette cards, we take a look back at the career of Bob McKay. Bob McKay only left Glasgow Rangers for Newcastle United in November 1926, but is already regarded as one of the most effective players Scotland has sent South. Click to continue reading...

Scotland will be tenuously linked to football at the 2012 Olympic Games after artist Craig Coulthard won a commission as part of the Cultural Olympiad.Coulthard's work is called Forest Pitch and according to the Highlands and Islands Arts website:Craig Coulthard's Forest Pitch involves a football pitch hidden within a forest. Click to continue reading...

Scotland manager George Burley has said that more funding for facilities has to be made available if the country is to improve and truly compete at international level. "We haven't got the facilities, we haven't got the backing from the government," said Burley. "We played four or five hours a day. Click to continue reading...

This week's Video Of The Week is "Heading For Glory", the official film of the 1974 World Cup Finals in West Germany. There was no English presence (although with the benefit of hindsight there was no disgrace in being knocked out by a Polish side that didn't get a million miles from reaching the final of the competition), but Scotland began their four-yearly routine of almost getting to the Second Round of the competition, the Dutch fielded possibly the best ever international team to not win a World Cup, East Germany met West Germany for the only time (and beat them) and Gerd Muller eventually won the tournament fof the host nation.

Click to continue reading...

"The Damned United" is a movie that has been much talked about in the soccer community but hardly marketed within the soccer community, which will surly be their most interested group in a soccer hungry nation as the United States.

The film profiling the legendary Brian Clough� will be opening tonight October, 23 at the Uptown Theaters with multiple play times and will continue through Thursday October, 29.

Click to continue reading...

"The Damned United" is a movie that has been much talked about in the soccer community but hardly marketed within the soccer community, which will surly be their most interested group in a soccer hungry nation as the United States.

The film profiling the legendary Brian Clough� will be opening tonight October, 23 at the Uptown Theaters with multiple play times and will continue through Thursday October, 29.

Click to continue reading...

That's not how we celebrate in this country! Players and staff from Hamburg were involved in an angry confrontation after their win at Celtic last night when stewards attempted to cut short their celebrations. There is a bit of a chicken-and-egg debate about whether Hamburg were sitting down as part of a new German post-match [. Click to continue reading...

Stuff to read while you enjoy the fairly cool Europa League opening theme.... Sixty favorite Wnger quotes to celebrate Arsene's 60th. (Football 365) Let's talk about the little people. (Podcast Offside) The value in a moment rather than a number. (Futfanatico) Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Click to continue reading...

Do you know who the unofficial world football champions are? It's not Italy, they're the official world champions by virtue of being World Cup holders. The unofficial world champions are in fact the Netherlands. Who says? The Unofficial Football World Championships people says, that's who.

Click to continue reading...

While USS S365 is on the fritz, I'll drop some bits. A few may be a little behind, but I'll include them just in case somebody missed one...#1 - ESPN ace Steve Davis looks at the state of the USMNT defense. And if you're unaware, Jay DeMerit needed eye surgery for an infection.Both owww and ewww. Get well, JayD! Click to continue reading...

Big Story
Yesterday's stunning day of UEFA Champions League action is of course the focus of discussion today, with every game providing talking juicy points for the press.

The British press naturally focused on Liverpool after their home defeat to Lyon.

Click to continue reading...

Maurice Edu didn't play in Rangers' embarrassing 4-1 UEFA Champions League loss to Unirea Urziceni on Tuesday, but he made news nonetheless after accusing some Rangers fans of racially abusing him after the match.

Edu is sidelined with a knee injury, but attended the match at Ibrox.

Click to continue reading...

Maurice Edu didn't play in Rangers' embarrassing 4-1 UEFA Champions League loss to Unirea Urziceni on Tuesday, but he made news nonetheless after accusing some Rangers fans of racially abusing him after the match.

Edu is sidelined with a knee injury, but attended the match at Ibrox.

Click to continue reading...

A bad night for US star Rangers midfielder Maurice Edu has revealed he was left hurt after being racially abused by supporters of his club. The USA international made the allegations via his Twitter account. He claimed he was subject to racist abuse while leaving Ibrox following the humiliating 1-4 defeat to Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni. Click to continue reading...

The South African Football Association have parted company with manager Joel Santana after a string of poor results. Santana, who took over from Carlos Alberto Parreira in April 2008 as Bafana coach, was fired after the national team lost eight of their last nine internationals. South Africa's 1-0 loss to Iceland was the last straw [. Click to continue reading...

Scottish Rugby and their kit supplier, Canterbury of New Zealand, has launched its new official Scotland 2010 home and alternate jerseys. According to Scottish Rugby's website: The new home jersey will make its debut when Scotland take on Fiji at Murrayfield next month (Saturday 14 November 2009). It will also be worn in the subsequent fixtures against [. Click to continue reading...

Jogaram amistosamente, em 10-10-2009, na cidade de Yokohama-JAP, no estádio Internacional de Yokohama, as seleções do Japão (40º no ranking da FIFA) e Escócia (46º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
21-05-1995 - Japão 0x0 Escócia (Amistoso)
13-05-2006 - Japão 0x0 Escócia (Amistoso)
01-07-2007 - Japão 3x1 Escócia (Mundial Sub-20
O árbitro definido para apitar esse jogo, foi:
Árbitro: Sang Woo Kim-KOR. Click to continue reading...

...Henrik Larsson or Gabriel Batitstuta. This is the view of former Scotland manager Craig Brown, who believes that Torres still has some way to go before matching those two players. What do you think?
In a recent interview with The Independent, Brown was asked whether Torres was the best striker in the world right now. Click to continue reading...

That's international week over with and fans of Scotland are scratching their heads as to what the point of our Japanese adventure was. All we really know is that George Burley is not scared to play replacement replacements if required. Probably didn't have to go all that way to find that out.In SPL world we are being buffeted by winds of change from across the border and over the north Atlantic. Click to continue reading...

Its funny how often we discuss rule changes and things we would like to see happen. As many of you know, I'm an advocate of the use of technology...something FIFA wont even sniff at! Recently there's been all sorts of preposterous proposals regarding who is eligible to play for what country. Most of us are aware of [. Click to continue reading...

Fergus Fox's bonce is missing SPL bottom side Falkirk have suffered a further blow after it emerged that the head of their mascot has been stolen. The furry head of Fergus Fox - valued at about £1,000 - was stolen from the club's Westfield Stadium in August, but the crime has only recently been reported to [. Click to continue reading...

And so it begins.A minor hiccup away to Ukraine apart (doesn't really count - nobody saw it), England have successfully negotiated their way to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup.Scotland, as we are so painfully aware, will not be joining them.So what can we look forward to now? Wall to wall coverage in the "British" media? Click to continue reading...

The shorthand that today's soundbite culture demands insists that it is called the "Andrew Driver Law" but this week's new ruling on international eligibility is about much more than the Hearts winger.Any holder of a British passport who has spent five years at Scottish schools is now free to play for Scotland. Click to continue reading...

I know some folks like to find a little distraction when waiting and worrying takes over. Therefore, I've decided to continue with this bit of regularly scheduled NSC programming.However, my promised S365 column can wait until tomorrow. I was about to publish it when the Davies news got around, and obviously put it to the side. Click to continue reading...

We had Ryan Donaldson playing the full game and scoring for the England U19 side against Slovenia in their recent 3-1 win, and we have two other youngsters starring for their side in European qualification and scoring too. 17 year-old Brad Inman - scored two goals for Scotland Now it's Australian Brad Inman and Irishman Shane Ferguson [. Click to continue reading...

SCOTLAND'S team which is missing 9 first team regulars was no match for Japan yesterday at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. Christophe Berra's own goal 8 minutes from time and Honda's goal in the 89th minute sealed Japan's victory. Click to continue reading...